and the romance of their
lives grew out of it. I kept thinking how romantic it would be to have
your brother marry your dearest chum, someone you already loved like a
sister--and that if my room-mate turned out to be lovely and sweet and
charming, all that I hoped she'd be, how interesting I could make it for
Jack. There's no society at all in Lone-Rock, and he never can meet any
nice girls as long as he stays there."

"And you don't think he would be interested in Ethelinda?" asked Betty
mischievously. "An heiress and a girl with such a distinguished air? She
certainly has that even if she doesn't measure up to your standard of
beauty. He might be charmed with her. You never can tell what a man is
going to like."

"Not that--that--_clam_!" Mary answered warmly, with an expression of
disgust. "I know Jack! You've no idea how she can shut herself up in her
shell. She never would fit in our family and I know he'd never--"

The signal announcing breakfast made her stop in the middle of her
sentence, for at that same instant the girls began to file in.

"Well, it's good-bye, 'Betty.' I must begin talking to 'Miss Lewis'
now." Giving Betty's hand a quick squeeze under the table, she drew
herself up sedately.

The Old Girls' Welcome to the New was the chief topic of conversation
that morning. It was to take place that night, and as the invitations
would not be delivered until the opening of the first mail, every
Freshman was in a flutter of expectancy, wondering who her escort was to
be.

"I hope mine will be either Cornie Dean or Dorene Derwent," confided
Mary to Betty in an undertone, "because I know them so well. But if I
should have to choose a stranger I'd rather have that quiet girl in
gray, over at Miss Chilton's table. She looks like a girl in an English
story-book. I mean the one that Ethelinda is talking to now. And I wish
you'd notice how she _is_ talking," Mary continued in amazement. "Did
you ever see more animation? She's making up for lost time."

"Oh, that's Evelyn Berkeley," answered Betty. "She _is_ English; a
distant relative of Madam's with such an interesting history. The year I
finished school she came in the middle of the spring term, such a
sad-looking creature all in black. Her mother had just died, and her
father, who only a short time before had succeeded to the title and
estates, sent her over here to be with Madam for awhile. He didn't know
what to do with her, as she seemed to be going i